Whitetail Deer Hunting
One of the many distinctions of our approach to Whitetail Deer hunting is the hunter's option to pre-season scout his own spots to include hanging deer stands.
The whitetail hunter may scout as many deer leases as he has time. This includes those on limited schedules that fly in and spend just a weekend scouting will find more stand locations even on just as few as three leases than he will most likely be able to hunt during the season.
This scouting flexibility builds options into every hunt so that all members should readily get to the point they are arguing with themselves where to hunt.
Add to this that every hunter can return to the same area and continue to scout additional leases. Many do so to include during spring turkey season and from year to year the hunter will gain an even larger range of acreage and knowledge of our trophy whitetail habitat than even the most ardent trophy hunter can cover. This allows for employing decision making criteria of waiting until the latest weather forecast before deciding where to hunt.
Two views of the same trophy whitetail.
Brian shared these pictures and his hunt account. During the conversation it was concluded it all came down to scouting, both pre season and during the hunt. He also adjusted his stand location for several stands through the hunt. What may be more impressive is that this was Brian's first deer hunting trip as a MAHA member and his first central mid-west hunt ever traveling from out of state.
MAHA staff members, except our secretary, deer hunt. That is to say the entire staff that is composed of the two partners Jon Nee and John Wenzel. We are a small, lean and efficient organization without much overhead. As deer hunters we know what it takes to be successful with the most challenging animal that truly is the king of the central mid-west. To this end, not only do we encourage scouting we will assist with the new member by recommending to him what region of the state he would feel most comfortable hunting based on habitat and season of choice.
Our deer scouting and hunting recommendations are right down to individual properties where we have seen trophy Whitetail Deer, the habitat or deer sign is just too good to pass up.
A nice buck harvested by a member that put over 15 days on stand to harvest the class of animal he was after.
We have been in the self guided deer hunting business for a long time. Not only do we track the habitat that most likely will provide food and cover we also know what regions of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri that has a history of trophy whitetail deer production. This builds as our approach to private deer hunting lease land does not lock us into a small acreage locality, we lease land in several areas of each state and those areas are not by accident. Deer lease land locations are based on our year round boots on the ground experience combined with regional trophy production and habitat quality.
We are organized and remain focused on what works for the deer hunting experience do it yourself deer hunters desire. A big part of that is not to allow any one to treat our private land leases as public lands playgrounds.
The shorter answer is that any one of our leases is more important to the Association than any one hunter's membership. The rules of which we clearly advertise as "Conditions of Membership" are immutable. The Conditions of Membership keep life simple. They establish the relationship between the hunter and the Association and any topic is either within the rules or it is not and there is not any discussion.
If someone wants to run their ATV for their children's entrainment, pre season dog train, camp with a bonfire, ride horses then they should go to public lands that allow those activities. Our leases are for hunting and that is how they will remain.
All to whom we allocate a membership to should have a certain mind set the first year. That mind set is to plan on a scouting trip, talk to us where to scout, plan to adjust as deer patterns dictate and habitat perceptions to that of the central mid-west and build flexibility.
Consider this one comparison between an individual private deer lease and MAHA's approach to deer hunting any lease we have.
The individual private lease holder will seek to find the best habitat he can afford in a part of the state he perceives (typically from record books) has a good trophy deer history. That hunter will then seek to develop the attractiveness of that lease to deer and work/hope that one place will have a trophy whitetail cross it when he is hunting, and come within range.
MAHA's approach is far more permissive in that same deer hunter for typically less money may deer hunt any of our leases and seek out the one or more from a range of several thousand acres of where to hunt. This sounds much better as the effort and cost of food plots, feeders, minerals is avoided as well. There is another cost however, that must be paid by all self guided deer hunters. That cost is time.
Regardless of how good our deer hunting or scouting recommendations may be as to where to hunt, regardless of how well that hunter deer scouts his first season, by his third year he will be deer hunting an entirely different set of leases than his first season.
The adaptation deer hunters experience is they initially find a wealth of farms to selects from in any of our three states of Kansas, Iowa or Missouri and spend time processing through those that meet his expectations. Once he settles on a habitat type or other criteria he will assemble a collection of farms that have similar criteria. Over time from scouting trip to scouting trip, fall hunt and spring turkey season he soon finds that half the leases will disappoint him and the other half better than his previous experiences. By this time he has first hand knowledge of more ground than he will have time to hunt and will begin to concentrate on 2,000 to 4,000 acres of land to either re-scout or hunt again.
Once a hunter settles in and starts to concentrate on a set of acreage his success rate of eyes on deer, shot opportunity and eventually bucks in the truck increases. This process typically takes three seasons. First season success is great. The serious deer hunter will be more patient. We offer that chance at patience as compared to an individual lease as that land may be taken by others at a higher bid from year to year.
The hunter may also trust our recommendations of where he is likely to gain the best results as our motive is pure.
Our motive is all about membership renewals. We are not in competition with our hunters and seek our members to have a tradition of trophy whitetail deer hunting with us for many years rather than just for one hunt or season.
As a business and not a hunting club, the only reason we recognize why hunters renew their membership to hunt with us is due to their having a good hunt, not social connection. That does not mean all hunters tag out each season. A good deer hunt is that all hunters have the potential through being able to conduct their own deer scouting, whitetail hunt their own style, in the historically trophy productive regions of Iowa, Missouri and Kansas and on the right kind of habitat.
The final aspect of this self guided hunt success equation is that all are able to deer hunt any lease without competition. That is what brings our deer hunters to renew their membership each year and that is how we manage the land we lease. When it comes to trophy whitetail scouting and deer hunting in general we seek everyone the same opportunity and hope for success, and many years of it.
The picture below is as useful for the habitat it shows as for the happy deer hunter. The trees in the background are not as thick as they look and the crop field in the mid ground far larger than it appears. Pictures being what they are just a snapshot frequently present limited value compared to time on the ground. While this one snapshot makes it appear there is more hardwood cover than open ground the reality is that our best deer hunting is in the agricultural region with land use being 45 to 55% in crop fields. For every 1,000 acres we lease the very best case is that 500 acres is useful for wildlife cover and not all of that cover is good deer habitat. That is the nature of central mid-west deer hunting that trophy whitetails first result from food availability then they make use of any available cover.
This is Bruce Johnson, the Association wetlands go to guy. While a hard core waterfowl hunter he also, likes most of us has a dual interest, in his case deer hunting. He like Jon and John also has a part in land quality checks during the season providing balanced feedback between the needs of the Association members as a whole and that of the individual hunter.
